This is for A2 English Language - Edexcel specification. It mentions it in the textbook but really doesn't give much detail. I'm stuck on the whole concept and the difference between pivot word class and open word class.
Thank you.

(Original post by Haushinka13)
This is for A2 English Language - Edexcel specification. It mentions it in the textbook but really doesn't give much detail. I'm stuck on the whole concept and the difference between pivot word class and open word class.
Thank you.

If it's for child language, it's probably this: "Early structural studies revealed that some words always appeared in a fixed position. The majority of fixed words occur in the first position of a two word utterance, the remainder always in the second position. Examples of those fixed words are that, there, allgone, my, dirty, and more. Those fixed words were labelled pivot words (Braine 1963) because they serve as a fulcrum, a point of departure, for the child's utterances. Dozens of open class words, frequently nouns at this stage, follow to form the two word utterance. The words of the open class (but never the pivot class) may occur together or alone as holophrases". From here.

We cover it on AQA A spec, but only fairly briefly.

The other issue is open and closed word classes, which are a different thing entirely. Explained well here.